A Scots Tory has been criticised for accepting hospitality from a drinks producer before later withdrawing his support for a key part of a national recycling scheme.
Maurice Golden was handed the free tickets by Heineken to attend sold-out Scotland internationals at Hampden and Murrayfield in 2021 and 2022. Mark Ruskell, Scottish Greens environment spokesman, today branded the gifts "unfortunate timing".
Golden, a North East MSP, previously supported calls for glass to be included in the deposit return scheme (DRS) being planned by the Scottish Government.
In a 2019 press release, the former Tory environment spokesman insisted the initiative would "tackle litter and improve recycling rates".
He added that Scotland's whisky industry would welcome the ability to use recycled glass bottles for their products. The press release was later deleted from his website.
Golden, the convener of the Scottish Parliament committee on the circular economy, has since become an arch-critic of the DRS in its current guise and welcomed the UK Government's recent demand that glass be excluded from it.
It sparked a furious exchange in the Scottish Parliament recently when he tried to deny any wrong-doing - leaving him to be dubbed "the forgetful Tory" by the Greens.
Golden's register of interests show he was a guest of Heineken at Murrayfield in February 2022 when Scotland defeated England to retain the Calcutta Cup.
The following month the UK Government signalled it would consider ditching glass from its own deposit scheme after consulting with businesses.
Golden previously attended the crunch Scotland v Croatia group match at Hampden Park in 2021 when Steve Clarke's side crashed out of the European Championship.
Tickets for both matches had a total value of £402.
Golden also shared a tweet in February 2019 backing the inclusion of glass.
He said: "If you are going to do something, do it properly - Scotland’s new deposit returns system should include glass. It’s just common sense if we are serious about reducing litter and improving recycling."
Ruskell said: "Just stop and think about the absurdity of the situation we find ourselves in for a moment.
"You have a Tory MSP whose party stood on a manifesto to include glass in the DRS, whose party helped vote it through the Scottish Parliament, who tweeted about the merits of including glass, and who published an article on his website about the need to include glass only to then later delete it.
"The same MSP received hundreds of pounds worth of hospitality from a drinks producer and around the same time they ditch their previous commitment on glass as policy.
"It at best calls into question the wisdom of accepting these gifts.
"At worst, it leaves more questions to be answered by the Prime Minister as to what kind of access the industry has had to his members that has seen them switch from a party committed to tackling poor glass recycling through DRS to suddenly deciding the environment doesn’t matter after all.
"Even though these hospitality gifts and party donations were properly registered, it throws up some really awkward questions given the remarkably unfortunate timing.
"I have no doubt in my mind that Maurice Golden is an honest individual, but even he must accept that this has a horrible look for his party given everything that has happened since."
The UK Government last month announced it would not allow Holyrood plans for the DRS to go ahead without an exemption for glass.
Tory ministers have committed to rolling out a UK-wide deposit scheme by October 2025.
A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said: "The Greens' attempts to deflect from their own failures on Scotland's deposit return scheme are becoming increasingly desperate.
"They've failed to engage with businesses and consumers throughout, but instead of taking responsibility they prefer to indulge in student style political attacks.
"Businesses and the public are sick and tired of the Greens' playing the blame game on DRS and this latest example shows them putting two and two together and getting five."
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